Monday, August 17, 2015

Family Stuff We're Into Lately

Swimming pool and/or redneck sprinkler rig

Texas is hot, hot, hot. We bought a kid pool at the beginning of the summer, the rectangle kind with the inflatable sides. Then Trent build an awesome sprinkler rig out of PVC pipes that stands up across it. Holes and angles and washers pray water all over the place above the pool and the kids adore the "spalinkaller".

Donuts

We somehow made it through almost a year and a half of parenting before our children realized that donuts are a thing that exists in this world. But now they know. So we are very into weekend donut picnics lately.

Playgrounds

See above regarding Texas being hot, hot, hot. But we found a newly refurbed playground near us that has plenty of trees as well as actual big sun shades built into it. It's big, on a big open lot area, good for running around freely. We plop Baby in the stroller and let the others run wild.

De-trashing said playgrounds

When we go to parks and playgrounds, we make a round with the kids before we leave, pick up bottles and papers and such and put them in the trash cans. The kids think it's a fun game and are learning to leave something better than they found it.

Trains

Before we even got the kids, a coworker of mine gave us a tote bag full of those classic wooden train tracks that fit together and the wooden magnet train cars. Our kids sort of ignored them until recently and now...oh man. I'm not sure who is more into them, the kids or their dad. He has since ordered about forty more miles of track from Ebay. Ok, maybe forty feet, but still.

Moseying around stores that have carts that fit three kids

After Baby came to us, we quickly learned we can't go out to eat as a whole family. Nope. Never. Not even with other adults to help us. Something about adding that third kid made it quite impossible. Sooo....to combat severe cabin fever at times because Texas is hot, hot, hot, we go to stores that we know have special carts that fit all our many children and mosey around in their air conditioning. Target and Home Depot specifically have spots for three little kid booties or two booties and a baby car seat. Trent pushes said giant carts at higher than average speeds, making obnoxious and amazing race car noises while our kids giggle and I huff along behind, trying to keep up.

Saluting every other Honda Odyssey we see

We adore our minivan. It represents space and practicality and many good things. Every time we see another Odyssey, we feel a sense of camaraderie and solidarity. So we salute from our car as we drive, a quick double pump of a fist against our chest then we throw a peace sign. Because we are ridiculous.

Air conditioning

A couple months ago, my van AC's condenser went out and it became a toasty ride. $200 to fix. Shortly after that, our house AC's evaporative coil went out and it became a toasty casa. $1450 to fix. A week ago, our house AC's fan motor went out. $770 to fix. At the same time, my van AC's compressor went out. $777 to fix. We're pretty sure everything is squared away now...it better be!!!...so we're basking in the glory of sub 90 degree temps in our house and sub triple digit temps in our main vehicle.

Living room dance parties

Sometimes we come home from work and daycare and have super rad dance parties. Our current top picks that we're trying to teach the kids are the Cupid Shuffle, the Cha Cha Slide and the Wobble. Let's just say, we have a ways to go. But we shall persevere...